


It's (not) a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

by Kittywu



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, Jearmin Week, M/M, Prompt: Dishonesty, jean is a loser
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-09 01:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1963170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywu/pseuds/Kittywu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean is a loser who can't bake. But he promised Armin a cake, so there is only one solution for his problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's (not) a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, I tried to be funny. And yes, this is a Lazy Town reference in the title.

“Yeah, I could take care of the cake!”, he had said. “Of course I know how to bake, Armin!”, he had said. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this”, he had said.

The problem was: he had no idea what I was doing. And he regretted everything as he stepped back in the kitchen and looked at the mess he had created. There was flour everywhere, the floor was slippery because two of the eggs hadn’t really made it into the bowl and there had been some unforeseen events while mixing the dough. And now, the freaking dough was everywhere. On his hands, on his clothes, on his face and even in his hair. And somehow, it smelled like something was burning.

“Jean, what are you doing in the kitchen?”, his mother yelled from upstairs. He was actually surprised that she wondered just now and not while he had cursed at the recipe, the ingredients, the mixer and any other object in the kitchen. But where did this smell come from? It didn’t smell like when his mother was baking. And the cake wasn’t in the oven long enough to be burned yet.

There was smoke coming out of the oven. “Shit”, he thought to himself and looked through the door. “Fuck, fuck, fuck”, he said as he saw the flames. “Fuck, shit, MOM!”, he yelled as he realized that the parchment paper was burning.

There was no hope for his cake. His first reaction after calling for his mom had been to fill a pot with water and to put out the fire. Unfortunately, this had not been good for the thing that should have turned into chocolate cake. He should be at Armin’s in one hour. There was no way that he could manage to bake another cake, let alone the possibility of him succeeding in baking an edible cake. But there was this really nice bakery, not that far from his home…

“Wow, Jean, this cake is amazing! I can’t believe you can actually bake!”, Armin said with glowing eyes after he tried the chocolate cake.  
“I... learned it from my mother”, he stammered.  
“That’s so cool! I wish I could bake. But now, I can always ask you to make the cake for any party.” Armin looked so cute when he smiled, stars in his eyes like someone had just unrevealed the most amazing secret in front of him. If Jean had been in trouble after telling Armin he could take care of the cake, he was now surrounded by an army of trouble. And they had guns.  
“Yeah… sure.”

He had been really happy when Armin had invited him to his birthday party. He wanted to be closer to him, to impress him, to be his friend and so much more. And this had been the perfect opportunity to impress him, Jean had thought. Well, Armin was impressed.

Jean was chatting with some people that were obviously from Armin’s book club when the small blond suddenly tapped on his shoulder. He turned around only to see these glistening blue eyes and this smile that could fill the darkest room with warm light.  
“My grandfather really likes your cake and asked if he could get the recipe? He’s not that good at baking so it will probably won’t be as good as yours but-“  
“Yeah, sure, I’ll bring it the next time we have history together”, he answered without realizing that the army of trouble was now loading their guns and pointing them at him.  
“Thanks Jean”, he said and disappeared.  
“This is probably not going to end well”, Jean thought.

He had two options: keeping up the lie and learning how to bake an actual chocolate cake in four days that also tastes like the one from the bakery or telling him the truth. And probably losing every chance of getting closer to the smart guy from his history class that was way more interesting than the industrial revolution and its consequences. He would never admit it, but he liked to watch him during class. He liked the way his hand moved over the paper when he was taking notes, how he sometimes tucked strands of beautiful golden blond hair behind his ear or how he tend to bite his lip when he thought about something.

“Wow, Jean, I had no idea you were that good at baking. Mind sharing your secret?” There was something devious in Eren’s voice. He couldn’t really stand him. He knew that Eren and Armin were best friends, but Jean didn’t get along with him. So his palms got a little sweaty as he tried to give his archenemy a smooth answer about his secret that didn’t include the nice bakery.  
“Family secret. Passed down for three generations”, he said, hoping that Eren would just leave him be.

He had to tell Armin the truth.

Jean made sure he was the last one to leave. And it was hard, because Eren didn’t show any signs of the intention to get out of Armin’s house for hours. But finally, he left.  
“Armin, you know, I have to tell you something”, Jean’s heartbeat was fast, his palms sweatier than when he had talked to Eren. He bit his lip and avoided the other one’s gaze.  
The other one just raised his eyebrows.  
“About the cake, I…”  
“You didn’t bake it yourself. I figured.” Armin gave him a pat on his back. He didn’t sound mad at all, actually he sounded amused. Jean on the other hand was far from relieved.  
“Wait, how did you know?”, he asked in shock.  
“We used to buy exactly the same one when I was younger and I remembered the taste. And that the decoration was absolutely the same. And the cake was still on a plate with the name of the bakery on it.”  
Blood rushed into Jean’s cheeks. He had been really careful to make sure that every sign of the bakery was removed.  
He scratched the back of his neck. “I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have lied. But my actual cake kind of ended up in flames and I wanted to impress you and-“  
“No problem. We’ll figure out how to bake a cake someday together, ok?”, he winked. And then he got on his tiptoes and pressed a kiss onto Jean’s cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> Btw, the thing with the burning parchment paper happened to a friend of mine. Twice. This actually is a thing that can happen. But how, this is the true mystery.


End file.
